Bleed valve must be open for system to work.
This is a 25 year old rainbird system that I inherited when we purchased the house. The system has 7 stations and used to start when I pushed the manual start button, but now the system will not start until I open the bleed valve on the first station. (It is next to the water meter.) Then 6 sprinkler heads pop up and run their time. Then the next station starts etc. until all 7 stations have finished. Then I turn off the bleed valve. Meanwhile that first station's hole has filled with water. Is that a wiring problem that I am circumventing?